Election 1981 Results
Each election opens in its own mode: the forecast before the votes are counted, the live count while races are still too close to call, and the results once every race is decided.
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1981 governor election results by state and county
Republican Thomas H. Kean won New Jersey by about a tenth of a point in 1981, while Democrat Charles S. Robb took Virginia back from the Republicans.
2 governor races were held in 1981. Democrats won 1 and Republicans 1.
The closest were New Jersey (R+0.1) and Virginia (D+7.1). 2 governorships changed party: New Jersey to the Republicans and Virginia to the Democrats.
Early projection, based on early and incomplete polling: the likely matchups, each weighted by the betting markets' odds of both nominations, not a result. Each county is its 2024 presidential margin moved by its state's projected swing; set a national vote and every state, district and county moves by the same amount from our projection. Colours run in 100 steps from a safe Republican to a safe Democratic margin. Boundaries: US Census Bureau.
About the 1981 governor elections
New Jersey and Virginia held governor races in 1981, the first year of Ronald Reagan's presidency, and each state changed party. New Jersey's contest was one of the closest in its history. Republican Thomas H. Kean defeated Democrat James J. Florio by about 1,800 votes after a recount, a margin of roughly 0.1 points. Kean went on to win a second term in a landslide in 1985, and Florio won the office in 1989. In Virginia, Democrat Charles S. Robb, the lieutenant governor and son-in-law of Lyndon Johnson, beat Republican J. Marshall Coleman by about seven points. Robb's win ended a run of three Republican governors and began a period of Democratic success in Virginia that lasted through the 1980s.
Every race
| State | Democrat | Votes | Republican | Votes | Others | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey flip | James J. Florio | 1,144,202 (49.4%) | Thomas H. Kean | 1,145,999 (49.5%) | 27,038 | R+0.1 |
| Virginia flip | Charles S. Robb | 760,384 (53.5%) | J. Marshall Coleman | 659,398 (46.4%) | 856 | D+7.1 |
Margin: the Democrat's share of all votes minus the Republican's. Margins are Democrat minus Republican, of all votes. Certified results, from the states' own archives, the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, Heideman (2026) and Algara & Amlani (2021). By county: "As they were" draws each county as it stood on election day; "Today's" shares the old votes among today's counties by area. County boundaries: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5). How these results were checked.